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IBM is a great place to work because there are so many smart people. And the best of the bunch are called IBM Fellows.

The IBM Fellows program was founded in 1962 by Thomas J. Watson, Jr., as a way to promote creativity among the company’s “most exceptional” technical professionals. The following year, the first appointments were made and the tradition has since carried on every year. The Fellow honor acknowledges an IBM Researcher’s important contributions and industry-leading innovations in developing some of the world’s most important technologies.

Recently, IBM announced a record number of eleven scientists to the 2014 class of IBM Fellows. The 2014 IBM Fellows have influenced a broad array of technologies in the following areas: Brain-inspired cognitive computing, security platforms, computational science, cloud computing, business database and analytics, and high performance, enterprise storage technologies. IBM Fellows have a history of pushing the boundaries of science and technology to deliver improved solutions for constantly changing, global business needs.

The 2014 IBM Fellows represent a microcosm of IBM’s diverse global research and technical community. Their backgrounds vary—from a village in southern India to the holy city of Jerusalem to a small town in central Kentucky. However, from different starting points, today these 11 leaders in their respective fields have reached the same destination…they are now IBM Fellows.

Every year around this time, the IBM Research team publishes a list called “5 in 5”. The list is based on research into market and societal trends as well as emerging technologies from IBM’s Research labs around the world. As a foresight analyst, I love these annual lists as it’s a little bit of trends research readout and a little bit of scenario planning that’s all designed to get people thinking and talking about how our lives will be transformed in the near future by technologies that are being developed today.

This year’s IBM 5 in 5 explores the idea that humans and computers will become smarter together and as a result of learning insights from the vast amounts of data. The 2013 5 In 5 lists explore scenarios in education, retail, healthcare, security and our cities. IBM says that in the future, everything will learn – driven by a new era of cognitive systems where machines will learn, reason and engage with us in a more natural and personalized way. These innovations are already beginning to emerge, enabled by cloud computing, big data analytics and learning technologies all coming together. Over time, these computers will get smarter and more customized through interactions with data, devices and us. Humans and computers will learn faster and the result will be that we will be able to solve previously unsolvable problems in education, retail, healthcare, security and our cities.

So this year’s 5 in 5 from IBM is as follows

1. The Classroom Will Learn You. IBM says that the classroom of the future will give educators the tools to learn about every student, providing them with a tailored curriculum from kindergarten to high school and on to employment. In the next five years the classroom will learn about each student using longitudinal data such as test scores, attendance and student’s behavior on e-learning platforms, not just aptitude tests. Sophisticated analytics delivered over the cloud will provide decision support to teachers so they can predict students who are most at risk, their roadblocks, and then suggest measures to help students conquer their challenges based on their individual learning style. For more, read the full story around “The Classroom Will Learn You” 2. Buying Local Will Beat Online. Today, most physical stores are limited to the insights they can gain at the point of sale – and the trend of showrooming is making it harder to compete with online retailers who compete solely on price. IBM says that In five years, new innovations will make buying local du jour once again. Savvy retailers will use the immediacy of the store and proximity to customers to create experiences that cannot be replicated by online-only retail. They will magnify the digital experience by bringing the web right to where the shopper can physically touch it. For more, read the full story around “Buying Local Will Beat Online” 3. Doctors Will Routinely Use Your DNA To Keep You Well. Imagine if treatment could be more specific and precise – where computers could help doctors understand how a tumor affects a patient down to their DNA and present a collective set of medications shown to best attack the cancer. IBM is predicting that in five years, advances in big data analytics and emerging cloud-based cognitive systems coupled with breakthroughs in genomic research and testing could help doctors to accurately diagnose cancer and create personalized cancer treatment plans for millions of patients around the world. Smart machines will take the output of full genome sequencing and scour vast repositories of medical records and publications to learn and quickly provide specific and actionable insights on treatment options for oncologists. For more, read the full story around “Doctors Will Routinely Use Your DNA To Keep You Well” 4. A Digital Guardian Will Protect You Online. IBM says that by 2019, each of us could be protected with our own digital guardian that will become trained to focus on our digital and physical assets, offering a new level of identity theft protection. Security will assimilate contextual, situational and historical data to verify a person’s identity on different devices. By learning about users, a digital guardian can make inferences about what’s normal or reasonable activity and what’s not, acting as an advisor when they want it to. For more, read the full story around “A Digital Guardian Will Protect You Online” 5. The City Will Help You Live In It. IBM has been leading the discussion around Smarter Cities for about five years. IBM is saying now that within five years Smarter Cities will be able to react more in real time. Computers will learn to understand what people need, what they like, what they do, and how they move from place to place. Soon it will be possible for cities and their leaders to understand and digest new information freely provided by citizens, knowing which city resources are needed, where and when, so the city can dynamically optimize around the needs of the citizens. For more, read the full story around “The City Will Help you Live In It”.

There is much more content for you to learn more about each one of the 5 in 5 prediction scenarios. For more information, you can check out

Virtualization is not a new trend (it’s been around in concept since the 1960’s), but it’s an important trend because it is a key enabling technology to implement cloud computing

Virtualization can be simply defined as the consolidation of numerous IT systems (hardware and software elements) on a virtual platform. Virtualization can help IT leaders increase utilization rates while simplifying management of IT resources. For business leaders, virtualization can improve business agility by better meeting shifting business demands on IT. Ultimately, virtualization can save a company time, resources and money. In a nutshell, it makes your IT infrastructure more agile and nimble to meet constantly changing business demand. Who wouldn’t want that?

Because virtualization remains an important enabling technology trend, I thought I’d provide readers of this some links to IBM’s most current reports, websites, and social accounts related to the virtualization trend. For me, it’s nice to have all this in one place. The reports and sites below are all hotlinked. If you see something that is missing, let me know and I will revise this post.

It’s hard to talk to an enterprise customer these days without getting into a discussion about Mobile Computing. Every day more and more mobile devices are being shipped to enterprise workers, who are increasingly using these devices (instead of laptops and desktops) in order to perform their daily business activities.

Mobile is a key part of the new computing platform going forward. IT leaders need to be out in front of this disruptive shift and understand how it impacts the way work is done at their company. Some key mobile technology sub-trends to watch in 2013 include Voice Search, Voice Assistants, Location Based Services, Gaming, Event-Based Marketing, and Augmented Reality. And within the next few years we will see innovations in Mobile Video and 3D Mobile Internet. For a view into potential applications five years for now, see the recently announced IBM 5 in 5 predictions.

All this has implications for IT skills and business processes throughout the organization. CIOs and IT leaders will want to understand how mobile fits into their organization’s unified communications strategy as well as the enterprise-wide collaboration and social business strategy. The increasing use of Smartphones and tablet computers as personal and business tools has brought organizations and their employees new levels of productivity, flexibility and mobility. However, their use is a double-edged sword, bringing with it new levels of complexity to IT management and security.

To help you learn more about the enterprise mobile computing trend, the following is a list of IBM websites related to Mobile computing trend. Included are links to IBM websites, social sites, and white papers/reports.

Why IBM – tabs for “Build & Connect”, “Manage and Secure”, “Extend and Transform” and “Events” that provide information about IBM’s focus on the mobile enterprise trend as well as resources and events to learn more.

See it in action – Case Studies of companies that have implemented mobile enterprise solutions

Big Data has emerged as an important trend for enterprises. Big Data refers to how we collect, store, and manage information that comes into an enterprise so that it can be harvested for decision making.

The reason it is an important trend is that not only has the amount of data been increasing rapidly, but the type of data has been changing dramatically. 10-15 years ago data was coming in from just a few sources, mainly customer transactions, supply chain transactions, and employee payroll. Today, data is coming in from everywhere, including other computers, mobile devices, cameras, and sensors. In addition, the huge growth of videos, pictures, audio, social media and other unstructured data is taxing the storage systems and information databases of many data centers. These trends continue to put pressure on IT departments to determine how best to design the storage infrastructure and the database warehouses in order to make it easy for the analytic tools to harvest the data for decision making.

There’s much to learn about the Big Data trend. It is causing disruption not only in the technology tools themselves, but the processes and skills required to make sense of all the data and turn it into insights that can be used for decision making.

To help you learn more about this trend, I’ve assembled the list of resources below. There are links to current reports, websites, and social accounts all developed and managed by IBM. If you see something that is missing, let me know and I will revise this post.

Every year about this time, IBM Research has been publishing an annual list called “Next 5 in 5” which provides predictions about five emerging technologies that IBM feels will impact our lives in five years.

Today IBM released it’s list for this year and it features an enabling and emerging technology called cognitive computing.

This year’s “Next 5 in 5” cover how computers will enhance the human senses of Sight, Touch, Hearing, Smell and Taste. A brief summary of the five predictions are below, along with links to more detail.

Sight:A pixel will be worth a thousand words. There is a lot of work going on in that area of visualization and imaging analytics technology. IBM says that computers will be able to analyze and act upon large volumes of visual streams of information to help us make better decisions. Read more at IBM 5 in 5 2012: Sight

Touch:You will be able to touch through your phone. Imagine being able to feel the texture in fabric over a mobile screen. IBM Research says that haptic, infrared, and vibration technologies will enable a touchscreen to simulate the physical sensation of touching something. Read more at IBM 5 in 5 2012: Touch

Hearing:Computers will hear what matters. IBM says that embedded sensors will pick up sound patterns and frequency changes and then advanced algorithms embedded in apps will be able to understand and predict events before they occur….allowing for better decisions and communications in real-time. Read more at IBM 5 in 5 2012: Hearing

Smell:Computers will have a sense of smell. In the future, sensors in a smartphone will be able to detect and distinguish different odors. Mobile apps will be able to analyze these odors (chemicals, biomarkers, molecules) and provide insights and recommendations back to the smartphone user. Read more at IBM 5 in 5 2012: Smell

Taste:Digital taste buds will help you eat smarter. IBM Research says that in the future computers will be able to develop new recipes and meals by using a the molecular structure of foods to optimize flavors and nutrition. Read more at IBM 5 in 5 2012: Taste

In my mind…the list represents an interesting set of predictions foreshadowing how in the future 1) computers will be able to give people back senses they may have lost (or never had) and 2) robots will have the ability to simulate human senses. However, there are many other potential applications of the technologies that we can imagine that will benefit corporations, governments, and consumers. For example, firemen responding to a fire in a manufacturing plant will have mobile devices that help them understand if there are any toxic gases. Police departments will be able to listen for patterns in gang neighborhoods to anticipate when and where skirmishes might happen. Automobiles will have embedded capability on board to detect problems with the engine based on sound patterns. Consumers shopping online will be able to ‘touch’ the fabric of of a sweater before buying.

For more on the “5 in 5”. Check out the main article on the IBM Research site at “5 senses. 5 Innovations” (be sure to explore the storymaps on the right nav bar). You can follow the buzz over on Twitter at #ibm5in5

Green IT, Sustainability, Energy, Climate change related issues are becoming more important to businesses. What to do about these critical issues are increasingly being discussed today in corporate boardrooms. Business leaders are actively wanting to find ways to reduce both 1)costs and 2)impact on the environment by minimizing energy usage, water usage, carbon emissions and waste. Technology will play a big part in the solutions that are proposed and implemented. In 2013, I expect companies and governments to continue to develop strategies and implement sustainability information technology solutions.

IBM is one company in the I.T. industry that has clearly called out sustainability as an important area for the company. IBM provides lots of content for visitors to it’s websites, including white papers and presentations. Below you will find direct links to the most IBM current reports, websites, and social accounts related to the sustainability trend. The reports and sites below are all hotlinked. If you see something that is missing, let me know and I will revise this post.

Energy, the environment and IBM – “Sustainability is no longer an option. Sustainability is an imperative”. Energy & Environment Portal with lots of information on topics like Smarter Buildings, Green Data Centers, and other Sustainability Solutions

Green and beyond: Getting smarter about the environment – An IBM Global Business Services Institute for Business Value (IBV) Thought Leadership White Paper, written by Karen Butner and Jacqueline Jasiota Gregory, published in September 2009, 161 pages (executive summary version also available)

The emergence of the eco-efficient economy – An IBM Global Business Services Institute for Business Value (IBV) Thought Leadership White Paper includes findings from an online 2010 jam that featured 1600 participants from over 60 different countries. Published April 2010, 16 pages

Cutting the carbon footprint of IT – How organizations can reduce both carbon footprint and it’s costs at the same time. Written by Richard Lanyon-Hogg, CTO IBM Green Technologies, IBMUK Ltd., Published June 2007, 24 pages

How much energy do your IT devices use? A guide to comparing their efficiency and cutting their carbon footprint, supported by the UK Government’s Green CIO, Written by Richard Lanyon-Hogg, CTO IBM Green Technologies, IBMUK Ltd., Published June 2009, 12 pages

Analytics is a hot trend in the industry, mainly because the amount of data that is available to business users has grown exponentially. Today’s businesses must deploy new analytical solutions to produce the required intelligence and insight necessary for the business to succeed in an increasingly competitive environment. Leading-edge businesses are embracing advanced analytics that can help them identify their most profitable customers, accelerate product innovation, optimize supply chains and pricing, and identify the true drivers of financial performance.

I see analytics being an important trend now for many years in the future. The way I see it, the amount of data being created and stored will continue to increase (does anyone really think it is going to decline?). Businesses that learn how to manage and analyze all that data and make it available in a format that executives and business users can make decisions from will be one step ahead of competition. Certainly, if your company does not have a good strategy for analytics, then your leaders will be making decisions based more on gut feel vs. facts.

IBM has clearly called out analytics as an important trend for the company going forward. So, as a service here to readers of this blog, I am providing direct links to IBM websites and the most current reports related to the Analytics trend. The reports and sites below are all hotlinked. If you see something that is missing, let me know and I will revise this post.

Business Professionals are in fact consumers. And consumers today have more choice, more flexibily, and more options in the devices that they use to access the Internet every day, including smartphones, tablets, and personal laptops. Consumers are using these devices to access the new applications and social networks that they use to connect with each other for both personal and business reasons. As that technology spills over into their professional lives, the line between the personal and the professional is blurring.

It’s no surprise that Business Professionals want to use the same technology at work as they use at home. However, while consumer technology offers some great potential benefits for the business, it also represents added risk in terms of security, privacy, and compliance. So IT leaders need to strike a balance between the desires of users and the requirements of the enterprise.

IBM has a bunch of content available to for you to learn more about this trend. Below you will find links to the most current IBM reports, websites, and social accounts related to the social business trend. The reports and sites listed below are all hotlinked. If you see something that is missing, let me know and I will revise this post.

Security is one of those important trends that will always be important because there is always a dark element out there that is trying to get around security’s defenses. The bad people keep getting smarter on how to beat security so those in IT need to keep getting better at securing enterprise IT resources.

Of course, the Internet is to blame, right?. Back 25 years ago, most enterprises were probably more worried about physical security than they were someone hacking in over telecommunications lines. However, with the growth of the Internet, there has been a lot of attention paid to the security of web applications in recent years. Web applications are now widely deployed now for banking, home shopping and inter business activities. And in the past 3-4 years, mobile, cloud, and social applications have grown exponentially. These new application are used by a very wide and vast user base which was never possible with older technologies. As a consequence, they have become increasingly attractive targets for cyber criminals and those intent on wreaking havoc for fun or profit. Every year we are seeing more and more high profile organizations suffer very public exposures because of attacks targeted at their web applications.

IBM has always focused on delivering security solutions and services and as such, there is tons of content out on the ibm.com website for those who would like to learn more about the security trend. So, as a service here to readers of this blog, I am providing direct links to the most current reports, websites, and social accounts related to the security trend. The reports and sites below are all hotlinked. If you see something that is missing, let me know and I will revise this post.

Cloud continues to be a very disruptive trend in the I.T. industry. I’ve been following the buzz around Cloud Computing for almost 5 years now. Back in 2008, it was the subject of many of my blog posts here. While I am not focused on it like I was back then, I like to keep up to date on the IT and business issues related to the adoption of this trend.

IBM has clearly called out cloud computing as one of the most important trends happening in the I.T. industry today and as a result produces lots of digital content for those like me who want to stay up to date.

In 2011 I posted a popular blog entry titled “10 Cloud Computing White Papers From IBM”. I thought I’d do something similar today. So, as a service here to readers of this blog, I am providing direct links to the most current reports, websites, and social accounts related to the cloud computing trend. The reports and sites below are all hotlinked. If you see something that is missing, let me know and I will revise this post.

I’ve blogged before about the social business trend and it’s impact on businesses. I believe that the social business trend will have a profound impact on the architecture and design of future businesses. Business processes will change and that will lead to required changes in application software. Those businesses that make the successful transition will be more agile, more responsive, and more successful than others.

IBM has clearly called out social business as an important trend for the company going forward. Our Social Business team and experts across the company have been busy producing thought leadership content. It’s all great reading. So, as a service here to readers of this blog, I am providing direct links to the most current reports, websites, and social accounts related to the social business trend. The reports and sites below are all hotlinked. If you see something that is missing, let me know and I will revise this post.